TouchPoints6: the state of the media nation

The launch of the IPA TouchPoints6 Hub dataset highlights just how rapidly the communications landscape is changing in 2015. The behaviour patterns of all adults are evolving at a sure and steady pace whilst those of the digital natives – the so-called millennials – are undergoing radical change.

Here, Newsline presents the top 12 things anyone working in media needs to know about the latest findings.

1. The level of consumer ‘media meshing’, i.e. using two or more media at the same time, continues to grow with 87% of all adults now multi-media tasking each week – a five percentage point rise in reach since 2013 with a corresponding 8% increase in hours spent doing this.

2. Television and OOH continue to be the largest broadcast media in terms of weekly reach and average hours spent with each medium, however, social networking and online continue to grow rapidly.

3. 63% of all adults now use social media each week – this has risen from 44% in 2011. In comparison, millennials’ usage of social networking has increased from 74% to 86% in the same period.
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4. For millennials, the scale of their social media use now rivals their use of television and outdoor.

5. Facebook is the dominant social networking site with a weekly reach of 58% of all adults and 82% of millennials. WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat complete the Top 5 social networking channels.

6. Watching live/recorded television via a TV set now accounts for only 88% of all audio visual consumption. This share falls to 73% for millennials who spend 18% of their time watching catch-up/on demand/downloaded or streamed content, while 6% of their time is spent watching longer online videos and 3% of their time watching short online video clips.

7. The Top 2 channels in the TV/video catch-up and subscription services are YouTube and Netflix. YouTube is the largest service in terms of reach with 17% of adults viewing each week for an average of 29 minutes – for millennials this rises to a 34% weekly reach and 34 minutes.

Only 14% of adults view Netflix each week but for a longer time (an average of 51 minutes) – again this rises to a 29% reach and 54 minutes viewed for millennials.

8. In the audio market, live radio listened to via a radio set again only accounts for about three quarters of the market – for millennials this falls to 50% with their own personal music taking a 21% share and streamed online music taking a further 12% share.

9. In the news market, printed newspapers account for 65% of all adult news consumption with a further 18% share going to online newsbrands – the other major source of news is BBC online with a 10% share.

10. In sharp contrast, only 23% of millennials’ news consumption is via printed newsbrands, with a further 34% share via online newsbrands. BBC Online takes a 24% share, Sky News 5%, 3% for BuzzFeed and 2% for the Huffington Post.

11. Looking at each medium’s volume of use by device, the majority of consumption is still via traditional means. For all adults 93% of television viewing is via a TV set, 76% of radio listening is via a radio set and 81% of published brands’ reading is in print.

For millennials these figures fall to 82%, 53% and 48%, respectively.

The primary digital device for viewing television is a PC, while mobiles lead for radio and there is a relatively even split between PCs, tablets and mobiles for published brands.

12. The level of online shopping also carries on growing – 28% of adults shop online each week, accounting for 10% of their purchasing occasions. For millennials 32% shop online each week, accounting for 16% of their purchase occasions.

TouchPoints is a consumer-centric, cross media, cross device study. 5,000 adult respondents, living in GB, each complete an e.diary and self-completion questionnaire which together creates the TouchPoints Hub dataset. The TouchPoints6’s fieldwork period covered Feb-May 2015.